


The Upside to Masks

by HungryLibrary



Category: RWBY
Genre: Fluff, Sad, first posted on Tumblr, goes from happy to bittersweet to happy again, hint of White Rose, mention of Summer, sister fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-29 12:24:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5127515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HungryLibrary/pseuds/HungryLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yang is cheerfully determined to get her little sister ready for the Beacon Costume Ball!</p>
<p>Ruby is less than enthusiastic about attending <em>another</em> party. </p>
<p>Neither of them are ready for a certain family resemblance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Upside to Masks

“Can’t I just go as Little Red Riding Hood?” Ruby wheedled from under the giant witch hat Yang had jammed onto her head.

“Nope!” Yang vetoed brightly. “That’s just basically going as yourself, also known as cheating. This year you get to go to a  _real_  party, a Beacon party hosted by the coolest upperclassman ever, and it’s gonna be amazing.”

She eyed a prop broomstick, decided it looked a little too enticingly weapon like, and offered Ruby a toy cat instead.

“ _Witch means_ , heh, that you need an amazing costume!”

The plushy toy was pretty endearing, black with yellow eyes that brought to mind a certain teammate of theirs, but wasn’t quite enough to buy cooperation.

Ruby glared and dragged off the ridiculous hat. “I hate dressing up.”

“How about this.” Yang swapped the hat for a set of false fangs and a high collared cape. “You get fancy for the party, and I give you an entire shopping bag full of discount after-Halloween sweets. Sound good?”

Ruby wrinkled her nose at the fangs.

A second later though her sweet tooth won out- as it always did.

“Fawngh.” She agreed, slurring past the poorly fitted plastic in her mouth. “Ut ou etter et a ood ind.”

“Great!” Yang clapped her hands together, beaming. Then she raised an eyebrow.

“You should probably spit those out though.”

Ruby frowned. She kinda liked how hard they made it to talk, they would be a great excuse not to.

“Hy?” She asked warily.

Yang shrugged.

“’Cause I kinda picked them up off the floor-”

“PLEGH!” Ruby spat out the fangs so hard they bounced and skittered under one of the costume racks.

Scrubbing her mouth furiously with one sleeve, Ruby swung an angry right hook with her free hand, only missing because Yang had already flitted off to a different display.

“Ugh, agh! YANG!”

“Don’t worry, little sis!” Yang called back cheerily. “I’ve had worse in my mouth and I haven’t died yet!”

If Ruby hadn’t looked nauseous before she sure did after hearing that.

“Please just kill me now.”

“There’s an idea!” Something flew across the store to smack Ruby in the miserable face.

“Usually I’d ban the traditional bedsheet ghost for being too easy to hid under.” Yang admitted. “But considering it’s you and your first proper Halloween party, being anonymous might actually help boost you out of your shell! And it’ll be easy for me to spot you if you try to sneak out early, like you did  _last_  time.”

“Boo.” Ruby grumbled as she slipped the white sheet over her head.

Yang laughed as she bounced back over to inspect the effect. “That’s the  _spirit_ , ghost girl. Well?” She prodded eagerly. “What do you think?”

The ghost turned slowly to face Yang with its black and empty eyes.

“I can’t see.” Ruby deadpanned. “Or breathe.”

White folds rippled as Ruby shifted uncomfortably under the store’s blazing florescent lights.

“And it’s so hot and suffocating it feels like I’ve died and gone to hell.”

“Aww, but it’s so cute!” Yang gushed. “You  _could_  just wear less under it…” She suggested helpfully and with innocence that would have fooled no one.

Ruby hiked the sheet back over her head so fast the costume almost tore.

“Nope.” She declared. “Not even candy is worth that, nope, nuh-ah, not happening.”

About to pull the sheet the rest of the way off, Ruby paused.

She’d been expecting some kind of reaction to that from Yang, a barbless rib about her being a killjoy or suggestion she bring along her own personal fan for air conditioning and creepy, ghost sheet flapping effects (Or just spend the night hugging their resident ‘Ice Queen’).

But instead when she looked up all she saw was Yang, frozen to the spot, face gone pale.

“What?” Ruby glanced down at herself in bemusement.

“Don’t tell me the costume is that good. You look like you’ve seen an actual-”

Ruby’s eyes caught on the white cloth of the sheet, the way it draped over her shoulders, almost like a cloak.

On instinct she turned to look at her reflection in a nearby full length mirror.

Summer Rose stared back at her in shock.

“…ghost.” She finished weakly, voice catching in her throat.

Her mom.

She was looking at her mom.

Ruby swallowed so hard it hurt, swallowed down the sick jolt that tried to leap from her stomach.

Silver eyes, Ozpin had said. But this was what he had really meant, wasn’t it? The same silver eyes- and everything else too.  

A touch to one shoulder gently steered Ruby away from the mirror.

“Come on.” Yang said softly. “Let’s go check out the masks instead, find something a bit less overdone.”

Ruby put on a smile. 

She’d heard that tone from Yang before, it matched the one she’d used back home on days when Dad could barely drag himself out of bed, days he’d tried to smile even as he avoided looking at either of them.

Now she understood why he’d had trouble with that.  

“Sure.” Ruby agreed and tugged the sheet the rest of the way off, folding it carefully before setting it aside.

“So.” She went on, forcing herself tone to be upbeat. “If you won’t let me be Red Riding Hood, then how does the Big Bad Wolf sound instead?”

Yang chuckled (In relief?) and slung an arm around her as they headed off.

“ _That_  depends on who you plan to be ‘eating’.”

“Blegh.” Ruby pulled a face. “Nobody who isn’t a cookie or made of some other kind of sugar.”

“But what if they’re really, really sweet?” Yang teased.

“Yang.”

“Or what if someone comes dressed up as a cookie? Or the Gingerbread Man? Or a candycane?”

“Yaaaang.”

“I’m just wondering.” Yang protested. “As a concerned older sister who takes her responsibilities seriously, what kind of circumstances it would take to walk in on my little sis devouring-”

Ruby shoved her sideways into a bin of toy spiders and took off at a run.

Looking back she almost tripped at sight of bust-your-face-with-my-fist Yang Xiao Long  _shrieking_  as she scrambled out of the bin, flailing and swatting at the feel of tiny plastic arachnids tangling themselves into her hair.

By the time she got to the mask section the yells had stopped and Ruby knew she had maybe a minute before her sister unleashed her revenge.

She spent that moment browsing down the aisle, walking past mask after mask with cut out holes for the eyes.

Finally something caught her attention and she stopped to grab a rubber wolf’s head, black as night.

It was probably supposed to be a Beowolf- Per regulations, no Grimm costume could have the telltale white and red masks that gave the monsters their name- but aside from that one detail, it actually did look pretty fierce.

Ruby smiled a little as she ran a hand over it’s face.

Best of all about this one were the transparent, red tinted bits of plastic where the eyes should be, perfect for hiding her own eyes behind.

Perfect for hiding  _both_  their eyes.

She slipped the mask over her head and looked around as the world blurred into rosy shades.

Maybe a costume party would be kinda nice after all.

….

_It was a disaster._

Mainly because nothing, not even a crowd of mostly underdressed teens hyped up on sugar, could keep Yang from teasing her little sister- but also partly because of Weiss’s chosen costume.

Weiss had decided to take her nickname in stride, adding a twist of her budding interest in terrible puns.

The Ice Queen went as Ice  _Cream_ Queen.

And the Big Bad Wolf spent the whole night hiding behind Ren the Tree and Nora the Sloth, pretending not to hear Yang’s loud warnings to a bemused Weiss about ‘hungry beasts’ or ‘getting  _wolfed_  down’ by someone with a sweet tooth.

Luckily the wolf mask wasn’t the only thing Ruby had bought at the costume store, and plastic spiders made for great after-Halloween surprises.

Safe among the fake foliage, Ruby’s evil grin widened to match the one on her mask. 

Revenge was a dish best served cold, wasn’t it? And oh how very  _sweet_ her sisterly revenge would be.


End file.
